Friday, February 21, 2014

Fake Food & The Anguished Homemaker ~ Update

An oldie not moldy post originally published April 24, 2012~ in light of the recent push by the Food Babe to bring to light azodicarbonamide AKA a chemical used in the production of yoga mats that is found in factory bread produced in the USA ... and banned in numerous other countries around the world. Here's my take on this subject a few years back. Know what you're feeding your family.

The above FAKE FOOD is the ingredient list on a package of white hamburger buns. Yep, it's vacation time from the family and I had to 'stock up' on some food while I am away for a mini trip. Sticker shock! Ingredient (not so) shock(ed)! Creepy feeling shock! Oh .. I also had the choice of 'whole' wheat buns and the ingredient list was similarly (anti) nutritious!

My homemade bread ingredient list: Freshly ground sprouted wheat flour, water, sunflower oil, sea salt, yeast. Notice there are no vitamins added because they have not been stripped out of the flour. No dough conditioners and preservatives .. because the shelf life is a few days .. not months. Cost including baking fuel .. under a dollar.
I walked away from the market with a basket half filled with mostly JUNK, and was hoping not to be seen with the various items in my cart. I digress .. there was also a box of Kashi cereal .. some sort of message on the box reassured me that it didn't contain high fructose corn syrup and that was supposed to make me 'feel good' about serving it to my family. A bunch of grapes (out of season), bananas from half way around the world, a package of kosher hot dogs, sliced deli turkey lunch meat, lettuce, lemon and (God forbid) a bottle of (fake) peppercorn ranch salad dressing. My total was $76 (almost 1/4 of our total monthly food budget).

Last time I went away I worked my butt off making bread, spaghetti sauce, and prepped enough food for several days .. along with our daily food prior to leaving. This little endeavor left me exhausted and questioning the sanity of why I was getting away from the family for a little rest and relaxation. I came home to find the spaghetti sauce still in the freezer (not used) and a few receipts for 'fake food' on the counter.

In a perfect world I wouldn't need to buy this JUNK. My family would know how to make their own salad dressing, cook oatmeal for breakfast, make lunch that didn't include processed meat. My job is not done.

Get to know your food sources. Read labels. Learn to cook. Plant a
garden with your family. Have ingredients available and teach your kids
to pack a healthy school lunch. The rewards will pay off with overall
health now and when you're older.

Homemakers prayer: "Lord, I cannot always inspect the food my family eats. Let there be enough nutrition in the foods I prepare at home to offset the times I have to close my eyes. Help me teach my family the importance of good nutrition and making wise food choices. Amen"

14 comments:

Mrs. Mac, Great post! When I grocery shop and look at the container of food to try to read the label. I find myself scratching my head with all the fake crap listed (some I can't even pronounce). I try to make most homemade items however, there are times(very few) when grocery items are bought out of convenience. When the family eats homemade, I feel like I'm adding life instead of taking it away with the processed crap.

Couldn't agree with you more! The amount of falseness in what is called food these days leaves a whole whack to be desired. Fast food, for busy working mums - but what about the long term effects of all that chemical intake?

I'm buying half a cow from a trusted source, getting my chicken from Trader joe's tomorrow (organic/free range), I've moved into only buying organic milk (whether it's on sale or not) and planting the garden this year! i'm actually excited about feeding the sisters good for you and good food!

Not having children, we don't have to struggle with the issues of them making poor choices that will effect them down the line. My husband was still eating quite a lot until we made some changes in how we do things and read the Wheat Belly book together.

I think that there are two things driving the fact that so many people still eat these things. One is convenience. We have gone for "easy" rather than traditional (and i'm guilty of this). Dr. Mercola says that in order to eat healthy, someone in the family is going to have to spend time (perhaps a lot of time) in the kitchen working at it.

The other is what all those ingredients do to our bodies. Several of these ingredients (the wheat flours, the HFCS, vegetable oils and any sulfates) INCREASE appetite, and reduce your body's ability to recognize satiation. What is more, these things tend to make you crave them and to want more. Much of the obesity problem we have currently is the inability to feel satisfied and the desire to want more because of the ingredients/chemicals used. (Plus, who on earth would think that ammonium sulfate would ever be a good thing to add to our food? This may result in the Alzheimer's problem as well.)

All that said, i will admit that even after many years of trying to be healthy and eat well, i still crave a lot of fast food. Sigh. I hate to admit it because i know it is a bad thing. I miss both of the factors above: I learned to like the taste, i crave it, and i miss the "easy" factor.

Yes .. there is a lot of 'training' on the part of BOTH parents that should start when they are both young. It's difficult when one knows in her head what is the better choice (according to the wife's input) .. but it doesn't register in HIS head. Time constraint is another issue in today's society. I am a full time homemaker and have switched over to making most of our food from single whole ingredients using fresh garden when possible and local .. get to know what the farmer feeds his animals .. meat, milk, etc. That ensures a safety net .. but there are times when the net is gone if I'm away .. leaving the Mr. in charge of meal planning. I have to say a lot of grace/prayer at times to be thankful we have food .. and when we have the 'bad' stuff, it's not too often. Maybe when he retires he will learn to make better choices if he works with me in the garden and the kitchen. (By then it will probably be too late to matter;(

Bit by bit I got rid of the junk. The mister is patient with me, but I know at times he thinks I'm a bit "off" wanting all natural. After all, he lived on CRAP his whole life. But, that doesn't make it right. And I want to keep him around for a long long time!(I love to torture him---hahahahah!)Excellent post!

I hope things went well for Nathan.I can survive on junk food for a week,even though I'm swelling like a balloon from the toxic wheat.Gunnar now is bringing with him his delicious homemade spelt breads wherever we go.This way his allergies and ulcers are kept from bursting out.I used to be tempted to buy Mars buns on the gas station, but not anymore.Children are weaker and more exposed since they cannot protect themselves from the factory food.You'll have to make a list, at least concerning Nathan. The others will probably recuperate in a month or so.

I cook from scratch full time, and try to keep our consumption of food with 'nasties' to a minimum. Sometimes there is no option but to eat food we'd rather not, but it's almost impossible to escape it. I know some people think we are extreme and worrying too much about what's in the food, but I just think they aren't very well informed if they think everything available is truly 'safe' as we're led to believe. I do all the cooking in our household (by my choice!) but my husband is usually very happy to eat what's provided since he feels the same way about food as I do.

Excellent post and so true. I advocate to every family I meet to start their own edible garden not only for a food source but to insure an valuable lesson to their children about the importance of eating healthy.